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Former Jacksonville cop dies following Seattle jail hanging

A former Jacksonville police officer has died of an apparent suicide in a Seattle jail.

Arnold Rice Sharkey, 45, was being held on a fugitive warrant at the King County jail when he was found hanging in the cell Saturday, according to jail records and information from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Sharkey, who died Monday, was released from jail in Jacksonville Aug. 25, where he was serving a six-month sentence on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He had been jailed since March and resigned from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office after he was accused of ramming a vehicle occupied by his former wife and her brother.

On Aug. 26, a warrant for Sharkey's arrest was issued in Jacksonville citing a violation of probation on an aggravated assault charge, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Information on how the probation was violated was not immediately available.

He was arrested at the Seattle airport upon arrival in Washington that day, Seattle authorities said.